NDG arrives and you find this........

To me, the ding is nothing. If you play the guitar it'll have a little buckle rash, it'll take a few bumps. So I think I'd try to determine if this is a really great guitar, and if it is, the I'd just keep it. 50 bucks or 100 bucks is just... nothing here, to me. You could get the next guitar in your hands and it might not have a ding, and it might play kinda crappy or the neck might not feel so good... if you have a winner on your hands as a player.... don't let it go just because of some silly cosmetic thing.

It's real nice of Sweetwater to make the offer they did, I'm impressed. But I'd ignore it IF the guitar you have is real sweet.

The case would be fair compensation in my book. I'd end up with more damage than that after a few months anyway...

I was scouring the web looking for a light (under 8 pounds) Kotzen when the Harrison models came out and I grabbed that instead.

Enjoy your new Tele. You can't see that damage from the front or when playing!

And like has been said already a little black nail polish or a touch from a black paint pen available at NAPA will make it almost invisible in like 60 seconds. I prefer the paint pen over the nail polish brush but to each their own.

What would worry me about exchanging it for a fresh one or doing a repair, is how you'll feel when you put the first real ding into it yourself?
How angry with yourself will you feel?
Much easier to take a pragmatic approach because age always wins, both for us and our guitars.

I vote for asking for a discount and NOT trying to fix it with nail polish. I've seen a lot of guitars with far more offending nail polish fixes than the original dings likely were. Maybe the tdpri folks around here are better at it than most, but I've seen some bad examples in the local music shops.

Click to expand...

The nail polish approach works. You have to be somewhat artistic and careful but I've done it more than once.

If they offered that case say deal and run for the hills (also I'd get the case in tweed instead of brown). A professional repair on that finish would cost far less than the value of the case (I suspect anyway) and to be honest I wouldn't bother touching up that ding unless you plan to fix up every other ding that guitar accumulates over the next few years. It'll be one of those things you will completely forget about, unlike the nice case. One my guitars crack in the finish right on the face of the body, I know I got the thing used but the point is that I never notice it when it's on the stand, when I pick the thing up or when I play it.